The 35-hour effective against unemployment, says a report – The Point

The 35-hour effective against unemployment, says a report – The Point

The 35-hour week was “the most effective and least expensive policy that has been conducted since the 1970s,” according to a report approved Tuesday the Socialist MEP Barbara Romagnan, which calls for new measures reduction of working time. The report, seen by AFP, was approved in mid-day by 12 votes against 4 concludes the work of the commission of inquiry into “the impact of the gradual reduction of working time”, incorporated on June proposal IDUs deputies.

The legal working hours from 39 to 35 hours after Aubry laws of 1998 and 2000. The subject was recently redone controversy, when the Minister of Economy, Emmanuel Macron, pleaded for more flexibility. “The Aubry laws (…) have created 350,000 jobs and contributed to reducing unemployment,” the report said, citing an assessment of INSEE. They have “permitted between 1998 and 2001, the French economy creates more jobs than ever before in its history, and more jobs for annual growth point in the previous and following periods,” insists the hon.

Meanwhile, Aubry “laws cost per year, 2 billion to companies and € 2.5 billion to governments, slightly more than 12 800 euro per job created “evaluates the report. 35 hours thus appear to the author, “less costly for the public purse” that “other public policies implemented to stimulate employment” and “including those based on payroll tax cuts without conditions” .

“Some negative effects”

According to the report by Barbara Romagnan, the 35 hours have also promoted gender equality, including reducing “the number of time contracts partial “that disproportionately affect women. Giving more time to the fathers, they have “helped rebalance limited but real household chores in the family” and “encouraged a better sharing of family responsibilities.”

The Doubs MP PS concedes “some negative effects” of 35 hours, as “the intensification of work, identified in several areas,” “strong tensions in the public hospital” and the ” difficulties “in firms with fewer than 20 employees. The “part-time employees suffered” and “less qualified employees” are among the main “forgotten” 35 hours, according to Barbara Romagnan. But “fundamentally, the 35 hours have sharpens through which previously existed in areas where working time was already very partial and flexible,” she says.

“A partisan defense “

To the member” rebellious “, the reduction of working time remains” a solution “to face the current crisis. “Consider the continuation of the historical trend of reduction of working time,” she wrote. But according to her, you must not think of such measures on a daily or weekly basis, like the Aubry laws. Rather than 32 hours, the member defends “a kind of savings account time in which we can take days to use at other times of his life.”

Meanwhile, the UDI president of the Commission of Inquiry, Thierry Benoit, who voted against the report, said in a statement that “it is born (has) a partisan defense the legal working time to 35 hours, not offering any new perspective or a new reduction of working time. “